The Wine of the Gauls is undoubtedly ancient, so ancient indeed, that Part II. is regarded as a fragment of the song that accompanied the old Celtic sword-dance in honour of the sun. It runs thus:— Blood wine and glee Sun to thee— Blood wine and glee. Fire! Fire! steel, oh! steel! Fire! fire! steel and fire. Oak! Oak! earth and waves, Waves, oak, earth and oak. Glee of dance and song And battle throng. Battle, dance and song. Fire! fire, etc. Let the sword blades swing In a ring, Let the sword blades swing. Fire! fire, etc. Song of the blue steel Death to feel, Song of the blue steel. Fire! fire, etc. Fight, whereof the sword Is the Lord, Fight of the fell sword! Fire! fire, etc. Sword, thou mighty King Of battle ring, Sword, thou mighty King! Fire! fire, etc. With the rainbow’s light Be thou bright, With the rainbow’s light. Fire! fire, etc. Far more charming is the episode of Lord Nann and the Fairy, and genuinely typical of the powerful fancy and natural magic of the Celt. The good Lord Nann and his fair bride, Were young when wedlock’s knot was tied— Were young when death did them divide. But yesterday that lady fair Two babes as white as snow did bear: A man-child and a girl they were. For making him a manchild’s sire, Lord Nann offered to get his bride any dainty food she liked, “meat of the woodcock from the lake or of the wild deer from the brake.” She chose the latter, while she grudged sending him to the wood. The Lord of Nann when this he heard Hath gripp’d his oak spear with never a word, His bonny black horse he hath leap’d upon; And forth to the greenwood he hath gone. By the skirts of the wood as he did go, He was ’ware of a hind as white as snow; Oh fast she ran and fast he rode, That the earth it shook where his horse-hoofs trode. Oh fast he rode, and fast she ran, That the sweat to drop from his brow began, That the sweat on his horse’s flanks stood white So he rode and rode till the fall o’ the night. When he came to a stream that fed a lawn Hard by the grot of a Corrigaun.